Sounders ‘gutted’, ‘incredibly disappointed’ after crashing out of U.S. Open Cup

Here are some team-provided quotes from Sounders FC’s 1-0 road loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup.

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SIGI SCHMID, Sounders FC head coach

(Can you pinpoint what went wrong tonight?) “It’s a big week in terms of travel for us, but take nothing away from the Rowdies. They played well. Obviously we made the decision that we were going to rest some guys and play some other people. Really I thought … we had pretty much control of the game in the second half. We gave up that one shot and they scored on that. Then you come back and obviously you’ve got to score the penalty. We got a penalty and a red card that could have equalized 1-1, and I would have felt pretty good about it. Kennedy has a chance right after that to make it 1-1, as well, and puts it over the top. At the end of the day, it wasn’t good enough. Our quality wasn’t as good in the first half. A lot of it had to do with Tampa playing their game — direct — and winning a lot of duels. Some of it had to do with the field a little bit, the bumpiness of it, but at the end of the day, tonight they were better.”

(Did it take you some time to figure out the field?) “I didn’t think we did a good job. There were a couple of balls that they played in and duels that we should have won, and he’ll remain nameless, but we had one player who I think the first five times he touched the ball he either gave the ball to the other team or missed the ball. So when you have somebody in your back line doing that the first five times, that immediately gives the other team confidence and takes away a little bit of yours.”

(Is it going to be weird having to watch the Open Cup from afar from now on?) “It’ll definitely be strange in that regard, because we’ve done well in this tournament, but for a change we have no distractions as we move forward. So without those distractions, hopefully it will allow us to focus on MLS and be a little fresher when we go into the playoffs.

(What’s the mood in the locker room?) “Haven’t been in there. They should be pissed off. There were a lot of opportunities out there for players to stand up and make a case for themselves. Some guys took advantage of that. Some guys didn’t. At the end of the day, like I said, we fell short.”

(How important was home field?) “Home field is always important, especially this field because it’s a hard field to play on. It’s small. They know how to play on it and their style is pretty much, drop it back, play it in, drop it back, play it in. So it’s a lot of duels that way. For us, it’s going cross-country with the travel. It wasn’t the easiest travel for us because we couldn’t get into Tampa. We had to fly into Orlando and bus into Tampa and down here. The flight got delayed for one group, so it’s a one where we leave at 7 in the morning from our hotel in L.A. and don’t get here until 8-9 at night. Those are all little things, but those aren’t the reason. We should still have won the game if we had played better.”

(What did you make of Tampa?) “They battled and fought. Obviously this is a game for them to showcase themselves and make a name for themselves in front of their home fans. It’s what the Open Cup competition is all about, so they took advantage of that opportunity.”

(How do you bounce back on short rest again for Chivas USA on Saturday?) “We really can’t train, so a lot of it is just recovery. … We’re up early again tomorrow, get to the airport and fly to L.A. Then try and get things going there and make sure that we recover. We sent some guys back to Seattle, so hopefully they got a little bit of rest. Maybe Alonso will be able to play again for us on Saturday, because we’re pretty thin at midfield right now with Evans and Johnson being gone and Zakuani being injured, so there are a few guys missing there.”

ZACH SCOTT, Sounders FC defender

(What’s the feeling?) “Just a lot of heads down. We’re incredibly disappointed. I don’t even know what to say, especially me. I’ve been in this tournament for many, many years and we have always done really well. This one hurts a little worse for some reason. Credit to Tampa. They played well. They capitalized on their quality chance that they had. I thought we did well really limiting any clear looks that they had, but that’s the nature of this tournament. It’s a one-off game. You don’t get to play these guys three times like we do in MLS. In a one-off game absolutely anything can happen and the cards didn’t fall our way today.”

(You’ve been in the Rowdies’ position before, what’s the feeling?) “Just ecstatic. The chance to move on, the prestige of this tournament, the chance to win some money — that’s what these guys are in it for. If they can get a chance to show an MLS coach that they belong on a squad like ours, then that’s exactly what this tournament does for them. It’s a stepping stone.”

(What went wrong? Was it a slow start?) “I don’t think that was necessarily it. The conditions weren’t ideal, but we don’t make excuses. I don’t think we played to the strengths of the field as much as we probably should have. We try not to be a long-ball team and that’s how it ended up playing out. … It’s definitely not our strength, especially when they have a lot of big guys in the back. We’re not going to win a lot of headers with Estrada and Lamar up there. We have to get those balls to their feet and I don’t think we did as good a job as we have in the past. But then again, there’s such a short turnaround for this game on Saturday. We have got to right the ship quickly and get some guys healthy and move on as fast as possible.”

(What do you have to do to right the ship?) “Again, get back to our roots. What made us successful in our unbeaten streak was always effort and was work rate first. The quality came second, because you can always match a team’s effort and work rate. The quality of your squad will shine through after that. I think when you get back to the first, just be a team that works hard and then good things will happen.”

MARCUS HAHNEMANN, Sounders FC goalkeeper

(On the game…) “Everybody was gutted. We worked our butts off. Tough conditions today; the wind was howling like crazy. My first couple of goal kicks were like, ‘Where’s that thing going?’ I swear, I started out right in the middle of the field, and one went straight out for a throw-in. Really tough conditions—the field got a lot of rain the last couple of days and was really chewed up. The ball was bouncing all over the place; you couldn’t play in the middle. And we didn’t create enough chances. We should have been able to get more stuff on target, and then towards the end of the game when we were putting them under pressure, we just got too anxious I think. We didn’t take our time then—hitting crosses from too deep where we should have worked the ball in a little better and got the ball closer to the goal line. For most of the guys who played today, this was our chance. You know you’re going to get runs in the Open Cup, for myself in particular because Michael’s been playing well … that’s the disappointing part.”

(On the Tampa Bay attack…) “They didn’t really have anything. The defense had played really well. … Disappointed for myself, too, because you make a good save and then it goes right to somebody wide open. It was just frustrating.”

(On how the team will bounce back…) “We have to forget about it a little bit and look on to Chivas on Saturday. It wasn’t that long ago that we seemed untouchable and that’s the part that we have to remember. The hard work that we put in today with a bit more quality and we’re there again.”

(On the positives in having a quick turnaround…) “That’s the one thing in a game coming quick. When you lose these games and you don’t have a game for a couple weeks, it’s an absolute nightmare. But having a game quickly again—like Saturday, a quick turnaround—is one of those things where you have a good chance to make it right again and get back on the winning run that we were on and playing well. That’s what it’s about.”